Marketers are in a bind since Google announced the deprecation of third-party cookies, and Apple announced changes that make IDs for advertisers (IDFAs) far less useful than they were in the past. Customers still expect personalization, but if your messaging isn't relevant, it's just noise. At the same time, customers demand privacy as well. With the gradual
phasing out of third-party cookies addressing the latter concern, how can marketers still deliver the personalized experience customers crave? But the end of third-party cookies doesn't mean the end of personalization, it just means that priorities and practices need to change.
More Personalization, Less Tracking = Opportunities
For marketers, the situation initially looks bad. Customers are becoming more savvy about data privacy and increasingly concerned about security. Tech companies and legislators have taken up the cause of data privacy and continue to regulate collection of customer data. But marketers don't have to see this movement as an "us versus them" scenario: Better security and privacy benefit everyone.What Are the Alternatives to Third-party Cookies?
There are other ways to identify customers and leverage data without third-party cookies. Aggregated forms of measurement that don't rely on personally identifiable information (PII) are feasible alternatives to cookies. A Treasure Data report about what advertisers are doing to end their reliance on third-party cookies revealed that more than half of advertisers will employ new metrics and KPIs for measurement as cookies are phased out. Furthermore, they are considering aggregated performance measures to capture more customer profile information. Here are a few first steps you can take to get started.Prioritize First-party Data
Marketers know the value of first-party data and it will only become more essential as cookies and other tracking methods fall away. Aligning yourself to grow first-party data sources is one way to get ahead of the game. Concentrate on sources that incentivize customers to share their personal information and add to their customer profiles such as social media, brand apps, and loyalty programs. Focus efforts on maintaining existing first-party data sources and shop for solutions that can enrich and manage them.Customer Profiles Without PII
How do you create customer profiles that don't rely on PII? Integrating customer data across disparate data sources is a challenge for any business. Add in shifting regulations around data collection and the prospect gets even more thorny. Decentralized Identifiers (DID) are an alternative to consolidate and store individual customer profiles without disclosing PII. Brian Mullin, the founder and CEO of Karlsgate, spoke with Treasure Data about the future of customer profiles. Karlsgate has created an Identity Exchange that utilizes encrypted, single-use, pseudonymized tokens in place of PII. The Identity Exchange allows organizations to consolidate information about a particular individual using these tokens to flesh out customer profiles. Mullin explains that Karlsgate's solution solves a number of critical challenges including:- Maintaining data custody: Distributed processing ensures organizations never lose control of customer identities, because it never leaves their environment.
- Protecting customer privacy: Single-use pseudonymized tokens guarantee no identity disclosure, retention, persistency, or re-identification.
- Streamlining data sharing: [Karlsgate's] collaborative portal allows complete control and transparency removing the need for lengthy testing agreements and processes.
